Autonomous satellite constellations for planetary exploration
Gianmarco Radice, Colin Robert McInnes · 2001
Planetary exploration will be increasingly carried on by means of formations/fleets of probes, all of them having onboard navigation and communication systems. It is possible to keep these subsystems at a very simple, level onboard of the probes, and to use some common external infrastructure to help them in exploiting these tasks. The common infkastructure could be represented by a network of satellites orbiting round the planet and providing a data relay to the Earth and a set of sources for a radionavigation system.